The Thestral's True Colors
by Saint Paul
Summary: Project Guardian universe: While shopping in Hogsmeade Ginny and Harry have to deal with an emergency situation. Ginny learns an important lesson from Harry


A/N this is a short character sketch fic, sort of a way to help me understand the characters in Project Guardian better. This one stars Harry and Ginny. It is in the Guardian universe, but, for this one anyway, you don't have to read P:G to understand it. 

It was near the end of March and Ron's twenty-fourth birthday was fast approaching. It was for this reason that Harry and Ginny were in Hogsmeade searching for the perfect gifts to give the redheaded young man. 

"So any idea what you're going to get him?" Ginny asked as the two of them wandered down the street, Ginny already clutching a bag from Quality Quidditch, which contained her present for Ron, a new pair of arm guards, which she knew he needed as his had began to get seriously ratty looking. 

Harry shrugged. "Well, I _was_ going to get him new arm guards _but..._" 

Ginny smacked him lightly on the arm. "You were not." Harry grinned.

"Okay maybe not. Still, I wish I had thought of that first." Harry sighed, feeling completely uninspired at the moment. 

"Oh just do what you always do and get him a case of Chocolate Frogs. He's still missing Agrippa you know."

"You're kidding." Ginny shook her head, an amused look on her face. "He's been searching for Agrippa since our first day at Hogwarts."

"Longer." Ginny told him. "Since he was at least eight years old." 

Harry cocked an eyebrow at her. "What? Is there only one of them in existence or something?" 

"No, apparently it's supposed to be fairly common, Ron just has lousy luck I suppose." Harry chuckled. While it was true that Harry had gotten Ron chocolate frogs for _most_ of the birthday's he'd known him for, Harry figured there was no harm in sticking with a classic, was there? 

That's exactly what Harry did. In less than ten minutes he was walking out of Honeyduke's with a case of fifty chocolate frogs. Hopefully, _this year_ Agrippa would be hidden in one of them, so they could all finally stop hearing about him. 

"So how's about we head over to the Three Broomsticks for a drink?" 

"Harry Potter, are you asking me out on a date?" Ginny grinned devilishly. Harry rolled his eyes, but didn't exactly deny it. 

"So come on, my treat?" 

"Yeah, okay."

Harry pushed open the door to the Three Broomsticks and waved Ginny inside. She went to grab them a table while Harry went to get the drinks. He came back to the table with a shot of whisky and some strange drink that looked like peach syrup with glitter in it. Harry hoped, for Ginny's sake, that it tasted better than that. 

Harry handed Ginny the drink as he sat down. They began to chat about random stuff and they were having a good time of it, until...

"Oh my god! Elmer!" The entire bar turned towards the elderly witch's scream, in time to see her husband clutch his chest and fall to the floor. Ginny immediately leaped to her feet and sprinted over to the prone man, Harry half a step behind her. 

"Alright everybody back up! Make some room." Harry pushed the gaping crowd back. and made room for Ginny to kneel and begin to try and find out what the problem was. 

"Sir? Sir? Can you hear me?" She asked. there was no response. She whipped out her wand and began to mutter a few spells under her breath. Her wand sparked a few different colors, it must have meant something to her because she nodded. 

"He's having a heart attack!" She chanted a few more spells and her wand started beeping in time with the man's heartbeat. _"Diffindo!" _she split the man's shirt open and began casting various spells over his heart. 

"What are you waiting for?" Harry shouted towards the bar. "Call St. Mungo's!"

_Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. _

"Come on! Come on!" 

_Beep beep. Beep. Beep beep. Beep._

"Damn! His heartbeat's gone irregular!" Ginny swore. She vaguely heard someone yell that St. Mungo's was on it's way, but she didn't pay attention to that. 

"Come on! Wake up damn you!" She snapped as she stuck her fingers in the man's mouth to clear the throat and let air through. Fortunately he was still breathing at least. 

_Beep beep. beep..... beeeeeeeeeeeep._

"Shit! Harry, he's going into cardiac arrest! Where are those St. Mungo's fools? I don't have the proper equipment..." She pointed her wand at the man's chest again. _"Defibrilatis" _A small bolt of electricity zapped out of the end of it, causing the man to convulse wildly. 

_Beep beep. Beep beep. beep beeeeeeeep._

"Damn it!" She used the defibrillator charm again, but this time nothing happened. It didn't take long for Ginny's wand to lapse into silence. It was too late, he was dead. 

Ginny's face turned pale and the was a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead, her eyes were dark and her whole body was trembling uncontrollably. 

"Ginny?" Harry touched her on the shoulder, she started and stared up at him. "Ginny, are you okay?" 

"I... I've got to... I..." She stood up and quickly bolted from the tavern. Harry faltered for a second but then he was chasing after her. 

"Ginny wait!" He burst out of the Three Broomsticks and into the sunlit streets of Hogsmeade. He caught a flash of red out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see Ginny dashing down the street. He turned and caught up with her, outside of Flourish and Blotts "Ginny, please wait."

"Harry..." There were tears shining in her eyes. "I... I didn't know what to do, I've never... I've never lost a patient before." Tears were starting to leak down her cheeks. "I let that poor man die!"

"Ginny, don't start like that." Harry whispered softly. "There was nothing more you could've done."

"Yes, there was!" She sobbed.

"Like what?" Harry challenged gently. "What was there that you could've done that you didn't?" 

"I... I don't know," Ginny admitted tearfully. "But there had to have been something! Something more I could've done. That poor woman, she's lost her husband. I... I made her a widow!" 

"No, you didn't. You tried to keep her from becoming a widow. You did all you could Ginny, death is something that just happens." 

"Harry, just leave me alone please, you don't know what I'm going through you've never had someone..." Her eyes widened in shock as she realized what she had just been about to say, and who she had been about to say it to. Her cheeks flushed the all too familiar shade of Weasley-red. "Oh God, Harry I... I'm sorry. I've been an idiot." She sighed and slumped onto the ground, leaning against the wall of the building. She looked drained. Harry sat down next to her and flashed her a sad half-grin. 

"It's okay." He said, simply. "I'm not going to tell you that the pain will go away, because it won't. But it will get smaller, easier to deal with." 

"Does it ever stop?"

"You better hope it doesn't Gin, I've seen the people that that happens to, the numbness. You get it a lot in Aurors. Some of them, they lose so many people that eventually, they just... stop."

"Stop what?" 

"Stop caring, Gin. They stop feeling. When that happens, there's no going back, they just keep sinking further and further into the cold with every person they lose. Sometimes, they go mad by it. I've seen it, Gin, it's not pretty. And I pray to whatever's in charge of the Universe that it never happens to you." 

She laid her head on Harry's shoulder. "I just keep thinking that there must've been something I could've done, something I should've done differently, something I did wrong."

Harry nodded. He understood that completely. Ginny sighed again. "How can you stand this Harry? You're an Auror, you must've lost a lot of people." She started again. "Oh God Harry, I really am an idiot, I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay." Harry cut her off. "It's like this, Gin. For every person I lose, I just remind myself to remember whose still around. They keep me going."

"And who are they?" Ginny asked with a small smile. 

"Well there's you." Harry began. "And Ron and Hermione." He added quickly. "Heck, your entire family really... even Percy." Ginny giggled. 

"Then there's Remus, and Tonks, Neville, old Mad-Eye and Kingsley, Dumbledore, Hagrid. People like them, Gin, they keep me going." 

Ginny sighed. "Thanks Harry. That helped." 

"Feel better then?"

"Yeah. I do, I'm sorry, I know I've been an idiot. It's just, when he died, I... I saw the Thestral's true colors."

"The what?" Harry asked, bewildered 

"Thestral's true colors. It's a wizard expression for when some goes through the shock of seeing someone die. Or losing someone. It happened to me, and it was just too much." 

The two of them looked up to see a figure of a woman approaching them, they instantly recognized her to be the old woman from the Three Broomsticks. The two of them stood up as she neared. 

"Hello dears. My name is Agnes Redbrooks. That was husband Elmer." Her voice broke and it was a moment before she could continue. "I just... just wanted to thank you, both of you, for everything you did."

"I wish there had been more I could've done." Ginny said, the anguish still in her eyes. 

"So do I, dear." Mrs. Redbrooks said with a small smile. "But there wasn't. You did everything you could. It... it was just his time." She gave them one last sad smile before turning and leaving. 

They watched her go before Harry turned to Ginny with a sigh. "You ready to head back to the Burrow?"

"Yeah, Mum's probably worried sick. We said we'd be back two hours ago." 

Harry gripped her shoulder as the two of them stepped back into the Three Broomsticks to get their bags. "You did a good thing today Gin. You should be proud."

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know." The two of them grabbed their bags and stepped back into the fading sunlight. They took one last look around and with a small _crack _ Apparated to the Burrow. 


End file.
